Comments by "Voix de la raison" (@voixdelaraison593) on "BLACKBURN: 'Guidelines need to be set'" video.
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HOW WAS OUR REPUBLIC SAVED FROM TRUMP?
We are taught that the main function of the U.S. Constitution is the control of executive power: curtailing presidents who might seek to become tyrants. Other republics have lapsed into dictatorships (the Roman Republic, the Weimar Republic, the Republic of China and so on), but will our elaborate constitutional system of checks and balances protects us from despotism?
Trump severely tested our constitutional system with his aggressive autocratic impulses that were mostly thwarted but not by our system of checks and balances. Our three branches of government played a pitifully small role in stopping Trump from assuming the unlimited powers he wanted. What really saved the Republic from Trump was an informal and unofficial set of institutional norms upheld by federal prosecutors, military officers and state elections officials. You might call these values our “unwritten constitution”, Trump Cult Members call it the Deep State.
The courts did their job in providing a modest check on Trump’s tyrannical tendencies, such as with the dismissal of his despicable attacks on the election. But the bigger and more important failure was Congress. Madison intended Congress to be the primary check on the president. Unfortunately, that design has a key flaw (as Madison himself realized). The flaw reveals itself when party loyalty is placed before loyalty to country and its citizens. When this happens Congress will not function as a reliable check on a president of that same party. This was what happened with Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate.
When confronted with a president who ignores all rules, Senate Republicans enabled him or remained silent. They allowed acting appointees to run the federal government. They allowed him to claim a right to attack Iran without congressional approval. The impeachment process was reduced to nothing but a party-line vote. The Senate became a rubber stamp for executive overreach.
Instead, the president’s worst impulses were checked by the three pillars of the unwritten constitution. The first is the customary separation between the president and federal criminal prosecution. The second is the traditional political neutrality of the military. The third is the personal integrity of state elections officials.
If any of these informal “firewalls” had failed, Trump might be on his way to president for life. But they held firm, for which the Republic should be grateful.
The first firewall is prosecutorial independence. The prosecution function of the executive branch is not mentioned in the Constitution, and based on the text alone — “the executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States” — Trump claimed in 2017 “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.” But AG Barr danced a fine line between being Trump’s personal instrument of vengeance and running an unbiased Rule of Law DOJ.
The second firewall of the unwritten constitution was the U.S. military’s longstanding custom against getting involved in domestic politics. It was invaluable in checking Trump’s militaristic instincts and ability to conduct a successful coup. On June 1, as protests and counter-protests became violent and destructive of property, Trump appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House and railed against what he called “acts of domestic terror.” He said he would “deploy the United States military” if necessary to “defend the life and property” of U.S. citizens. In a subsequent photo op, he was flanked by Mr. Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was clad in military fatigues. Soon, active duty forces from the 82nd Airborne Division were positioned outside of Washington.
It was an extraordinarily dangerous moment for the country. As the history of lapsed republics suggests, when the military becomes involved in domestic politics, it tends to stay involved. But two days after Trump’s rant, Mr. Esper publicly broke with the president, stressing that active duty forces should be used domestically only “as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He concluded that “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
General Milley later issued a public apology for participating in Trump’s photo op. “My presence in that moment,” he said, “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” He added, “I should not have been there.”
Trump’s plans ran afoul not of the law, but of an unwritten rule. In a few days, the active duty troops gathered around Washington were sent home. Though briefly tested, the norm had held.
The final firewall of the unwritten constitution has been the integrity of state elections officials. Corruption of the people and institutions that set election rules and count votes is an obvious threat to the democratic process. In Russia, for example, the neutrality of its Central Election Commission during President Vladimir Putin’s rule has been repeatedly questioned, especially given the tendency of that body to disqualify leading opposition figures and parties.
The story of Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state in Georgia and its top elections official, testifies to the potential threats to an election’s integrity during a heated campaign. Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, was loosely in charge of the vote in a state that went narrowly for Mr. Biden. In that capacity, Mr. Raffensperger was attacked and disparaged by higher-ranking members of his own party. This included such prominent political figures as Georgia’s two senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Both demanded Mr. Raffensperger resign for no apparent reason other than his failure to prevent Mr. Biden from winning the state.
Despite the pressure, Mr. Raffensperger and the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, held steady, along with an overwhelming majority of state elections officials around the country. They have refused to “discover” voting fraud without good evidence of it. Party loyalty — at this point — seems not to have fatally corrupted the vote-counting process.
Might this welcome result be credited to constitutional design? Not really. What mattered most was the But what seems to have mattered most was the integrity of the state elections officials. Their professional commitment to a fair vote spared the Republic an existential crisis.
The last four years suggest that Structural checks can be overrated. The survival of our Republic depends as much, if not more, on the virtue of those in government, particularly the upholding of norms by civil servants, prosecutors and military officials. We have grown too jaded about things like professionalism and institutions, and the idea of men and women who take their moral duties seriously. But as every major moral tradition teaches, no external constraint can fully substitute for the personal compulsion to do what is morally right.
It is called civic virtue, and at the end of the day, it is this type of Patriotism that makes a Republic function.
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HOW WAS OUR REPUBLIC SAVED FROM TRUMP?
We are taught that the main function of the U.S. Constitution is the control of executive power: curtailing presidents who might seek to become tyrants. Other republics have lapsed into dictatorships (the Roman Republic, the Weimar Republic, the Republic of China and so on), but will our elaborate constitutional system of checks and balances protects us from despotism?
Trump severely tested our constitutional system with his aggressive autocratic impulses that were mostly thwarted but not by our system of checks and balances. Our three branches of government played a pitifully small role in stopping Trump from assuming the unlimited powers he wanted. What really saved the Republic from Trump was an informal and unofficial set of institutional norms upheld by federal prosecutors, military officers and state elections officials. You might call these values our “unwritten constitution”, Trump Cult Members call it the Deep State.
The courts did their job in providing a modest check on Trump’s tyrannical tendencies, such as with the dismissal of his despicable attacks on the election. But the bigger and more important failure was Congress. Madison intended Congress to be the primary check on the president. Unfortunately, that design has a key flaw (as Madison himself realized). The flaw reveals itself when party loyalty is placed before loyalty to country and its citizens. When this happens Congress will not function as a reliable check on a president of that same party. This was what happened with Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate.
When confronted with a president who ignores all rules, Senate Republicans enabled him or remained silent. They allowed acting appointees to run the federal government. They allowed him to claim a right to attack Iran without congressional approval. The impeachment process was reduced to nothing but a party-line vote. The Senate became a rubber stamp for executive overreach.
Instead, the president’s worst impulses were checked by the three pillars of the unwritten constitution. The first is the customary separation between the president and federal criminal prosecution. The second is the traditional political neutrality of the military. The third is the personal integrity of state elections officials.
If any of these informal “firewalls” had failed, Trump might be on his way to president for life. But they held firm, for which the Republic should be grateful.
The first firewall is prosecutorial independence. The prosecution function of the executive branch is not mentioned in the Constitution, and based on the text alone — “the executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States” — Trump claimed in 2017 “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.” But AG Barr danced a fine line between being Trump’s personal instrument of vengeance and running an unbiased Rule of Law DOJ.
The second firewall of the unwritten constitution was the U.S. military’s longstanding custom against getting involved in domestic politics. It was invaluable in checking Trump’s militaristic instincts and ability to conduct a successful coup. On June 1, as protests and counter-protests became violent and destructive of property, Trump appeared in the Rose Garden of the White House and railed against what he called “acts of domestic terror.” He said he would “deploy the United States military” if necessary to “defend the life and property” of U.S. citizens. In a subsequent photo op, he was flanked by Mr. Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was clad in military fatigues. Soon, active duty forces from the 82nd Airborne Division were positioned outside of Washington.
It was an extraordinarily dangerous moment for the country. As the history of lapsed republics suggests, when the military becomes involved in domestic politics, it tends to stay involved. But two days after Trump’s rant, Mr. Esper publicly broke with the president, stressing that active duty forces should be used domestically only “as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.” He concluded that “I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
General Milley later issued a public apology for participating in Trump’s photo op. “My presence in that moment,” he said, “created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.” He added, “I should not have been there.”
Trump’s plans ran afoul not of the law, but of an unwritten rule. In a few days, the active duty troops gathered around Washington were sent home. Though briefly tested, the norm had held.
The final firewall of the unwritten constitution has been the integrity of state elections officials. Corruption of the people and institutions that set election rules and count votes is an obvious threat to the democratic process. In Russia, for example, the neutrality of its Central Election Commission during President Vladimir Putin’s rule has been repeatedly questioned, especially given the tendency of that body to disqualify leading opposition figures and parties.
The story of Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state in Georgia and its top elections official, testifies to the potential threats to an election’s integrity during a heated campaign. Mr. Raffensperger, a Republican, was loosely in charge of the vote in a state that went narrowly for Mr. Biden. In that capacity, Mr. Raffensperger was attacked and disparaged by higher-ranking members of his own party. This included such prominent political figures as Georgia’s two senators, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Both demanded Mr. Raffensperger resign for no apparent reason other than his failure to prevent Mr. Biden from winning the state.
Despite the pressure, Mr. Raffensperger and the state’s governor, Brian Kemp, held steady, along with an overwhelming majority of state elections officials around the country. They have refused to “discover” voting fraud without good evidence of it. Party loyalty — at this point — seems not to have fatally corrupted the vote-counting process.
Might this welcome result be credited to constitutional design? Not really. What mattered most was the But what seems to have mattered most was the integrity of the state elections officials. Their professional commitment to a fair vote spared the Republic an existential crisis.
The last four years suggest that Structural checks can be overrated. The survival of our Republic depends as much, if not more, on the virtue of those in government, particularly the upholding of norms by civil servants, prosecutors and military officials. We have grown too jaded about things like professionalism and institutions, and the idea of men and women who take their moral duties seriously. But as every major moral tradition teaches, no external constraint can fully substitute for the personal compulsion to do what is morally right.
It is called civic virtue, and at the end of the day, it is this type of Patriotism that makes a Republic function.
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